Since Canada’s act of confederation almost 150 years ago, Canadians have a proud record of opening their arms to those seeking a new beginning. Canada helped create the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and is party both to the 1951 Refugee Convention and to its 1967 Protocol. This country has a long history of humanitarianism, having taken in Hungarians, Vietnamese, East African Asians, Somalis, refugees from the Balkans and countless others in their time of greatest need.

More recently, refugees from Iraq, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan have found a safe home in Canada thanks to your resettlement programs and to the generous sponsorship of countless individuals and groups. And in recent weeks, as your government announced measures to accelerate the acceptance of 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, local communities mobilized to offer private sponsorships for others.

The world needs Canada’s help like never before. The world is facing its largest displacement crisis since the Second World War. Around the world, almost 60 million people, more than one and a half times the entire population of Canada, have been forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict or persecution. The list of humanitarian crises stretches from Syria and Iraq to Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan, from South Sudan to Burundi, Somalia, the Central African Republic and many others.